Hey guys! So the next chapter is up, the climax is approaching! I hope you enjoy this chapter. Thank you for getting us to 16 reviews!
Thanks to the asian for his review, thanks for the compliments, and I'll try to include Rick Riordan's style more. I was wondering if you had any particular traits of his style of writing in mind? I particularly try and keep his funny style, for example the chapter openings are usually the character's thoughts, not speech. I also try to keep the characters in character, not OOC.
Astroboyosh, thanks for your comments. It always makes me happy when I hear people want to read on in my story :)
Guest: I understand what you mean, but obviously I can't tell you if that will happen or not because then it wouldn't be a twist! I think there are some surprises in store, and its a war, so people will die, people have died already, though they may not have been highlighted yet.
Thanks again for the reviews! I will post the next chapter after I reach 18 reviews. Read, enjoy and review! :)
Frank
Frank figured if he was going to die, he wanted to look cool doing it. Of course, he would probably still epically fail. At dying. How depressing was that?
"Looks like Annabeth was right," Leo muttered, "unfortunately. The giants are waiting in Mt. Olympus. What a pleasant surprise," he said dryly.
Frank raised his spear, his grip clammy. The war cry had sounded, and now all he could hear was the thundering of approaching footsteps. The courtyard in front of them was absolutely huge, massively long on all sides, so big that Frank wasn't even sure it was a courtyard. More like a battlefield that also doubled as the entrance to Olympus. All the grandeur had long since gone, the arches collapsed, leaving only devastated piles of rubble. And this was before the battle. Right now, it was completely empty, but it would only be a few seconds before it was flooding with monsters. Apprehension flowed through him.
Frank felt for his lifeline, the half-burnt stick. It was still there, in his coat jacket. He glanced over at Hazel, who had called Arion, and was now on top of him. Despite their situation, Frank thought she looked breath taking, like a princess. Who had a sword. And was ready to kill monsters. The rest of the seven too had taken out of their weapons, ready for battle.
"Remember guys," Annabeth called out. "We need to kill these monsters, and then we have to find the clearing of Ouranos. Oh, and one more thing-"
Annabeth was cut off by the overpowering clamour of the monsters. They had entered the courtyard; or at least the front few rows of the army had. There were creatures of every kind, with flickering tongues, fiery eyes, devilish claws, and a fury burning inside every one of them. There were legions of dracaenae, hellhounds, empousai, stymphalian birds, chimerae, and laistrygonian giants, even hippalektryons, which were half-rooster, half-horse flesh-eating creatures. And spurring the army on were five giants.
Each of them was as tall as each other, each around 15 feet tall, with their snaky legs. Apart from that they differed completely, except for their expressions. Murderous.
"We need the gods," Frank said, not even registering what he was saying. But he knew it was true. Even if there were no giants, seven demigods alone, no matter how powerful, had absolutely no chance of destroying an army that large. Hordes of them roared as they trampled each other, racing to get the first kill. Frank would've betted that there were thousands of them. Against only seven demigods.
Jason nodded, standing with Piper. "We need to call them." He closed his eyes, and Piper, holding his hand, followed suit. Percy, Annabeth and Leo did the same. However Frank exchanged a look with Hazel. Frank had his differences with Mars, but at least they had talked, at least Frank had become closer to him. Frank knew Pluto had only appeared twice to Hazel, and they didn't have the best relationship. Hazel would be uncertain in praying to him. Frank held his hand up and she took it. He nodded his head. And together they closed their eyes.
Mars? Yeah I dunno if you're there, but… I kinda need your help and all. And I know you're really busy, but I'd appreciate it if you could help us save the world. If you could kinda appear for once, I'd be grateful. Oh, and bring your godly friends too. Uh… thanks?
He opened his eyes to a scene of chaos. The monsters were 100m away. Even for monsters, they had covered the distance very quickly.
Everyone's eyes were open now. From the look on his friend's faces, no one's parents had answered. The monsters approached, and still no god appeared.
The first wave of monsters was nearing. Hazel rode forward, the rest of the seven close behind her. Frank lingered back. He drew his bow and arrow. He fired the arrow, piercing a dracaenae into the dust. Arrow after arrow he fired, quicker than he had ever before. Then he grinned. He took out another sling of arrows, but these were ones that Leo had specially designed.
The first arrow whistled through the air, a column of fire streaking behind it. It landed, implanting itself in the ground. An explosion rippled outwards from it, hurling monsters outwards. The charred earth steamed with ashes from the monsters. Hazel looked back at him, impressed. As he drew Leo's second arrow and shot he smiled at what this one would do. As it took flight it started to change form and as it landed, formed an automaton, a robotic spider, which viciously attacked the nearest enemy by attaching itself to it. He took out another, labelled 'TX', and Frank grinned. He almost felt sorry for the receivers. He scanned the courtyard for a demigod free area. Then he shot, and as it landed he immediately saw the toxic greenish gas escape, and watched the monsters' expressions, gagging. Leo had definitely designed that arrow, he thought as they all fell to the ground, rendered unconscious.
He decided to save the last three arrows; Leo had only designed six. He switched back to the normal ones. Soon he was slinging the arrows continuously. He thanked the hunters mentally, who had given him a large supply of arrows. Luckily, his quiver was magical; it could hold any amount without the weight increasing. Soon he was firing the arrows subconsciously, not really paying attention to what he was doing. He scanned the battlefield, his hands still working deftly. The monsters had now reached them. Frank would have been overrun, but Hazel was nearby, darting around on Arion, destroying any monsters that tried to come near Frank, giving him a safe space to fire his arrows. Razor-sharp rocks containing precious metals popped to the surface of the ground, the size of humans, impaling monsters. She was also using the mist to manipulate the monsters to turn on each other, thinking fellow monsters were the enemy.
Leo was further along, a fiery hammer in his hand, swirling round, blasting any monster that tried to come near him. The air was hotter near where he was, the heat waves shimmering. His left hand, which wasn't clutching his hammer, was tinkering in his tool-belt, producing random creations at astonishing speed, tiny robots which propelled themselves towards monsters, disintegrating them into ashes.
Piper held the sword that she had taken from Zethes. Her lessons in sword-fighting had definitely paid off. The ice that crackled on the sword spread like frost through the monsters, slowing them down. Her cornucopia was at her belt, firing pieces of ham the size of chickens, thudding with four pounds of sheer force at top speed. She herself was shouting out commands, using her charmspeak to dull their senses.
Jason was furthest out, smashing his way though swathes of monsters, stabbing and slashing. Somehow he had summoned his storm spirit horse, Tempest, who was causing havoc with lightning. Whenever a monster came at him, Jason flew into the air, dodging and swerving, before coming down, impaling them with his sword, which was crackling with electricity.
For a few seconds Frank couldn't find Annabeth. Suddenly he saw an area of monsters, near a majestic wall, one which hadn't collapsed. The monsters were seemingly disintegrating for no reason… as if an invisible person was attacking them. Annabeth! Frank remembered Annabeth had told them about her Yankees cap, which when it was working turned her invisible. Athena must have restored power to it! Suddenly Annabeth whipped her cap off, to reveal her standing there, her drakon-bone sword in her hand. She grinned, and waited for the monsters to swarm her, before disappearing again, causing confusion amongst the monsters, and then striking them from the back.
Not too far away from her was Percy. He was whirling Riptide around, moving rapidly, and jumping from monster to monster. The guy was like a whirlwind, any monster coming near him collapsing into ash. Suddenly Frank realised Percy was moving too quickly than possible. Frank looked at the ground, and realised that Percy was surfing the water, clashing with monsters like a boomerang, using the water as whip, hurling the water into monsters. Frank wondered where the water was coming from. Suddenly he saw that the water was coming from Leo: he was melting the ice that Piper's sword produced, and the ice that was already coating the mountain. He was like a monster whirlpool, drawing them all in and destroying them; and the water must've been healing him, because the cuts were fading rapidly on him even as they were formed. He seemed invincible.
Frank realised that despite all the efforts of him and his friends, it didn't seem to have a visible impact on the monsters. More and more just came to replace the dead. And slowly, the demigods were being pushed backwards, slowly overwhelmed by the thick ranks of monsters. The giants hadn't even moved, but were instead standing proud at the back of the battlefield, surveying the fight, letting their minions do the dirty work, as if they knew the monsters would over-run the demigods.
Frank stopped shooting arrows, and slung his quiver safely over his shoulder, where he would use the arrows later. He knew what to do. He leapt upwards, and whilst mid-air, transformed into a dragon. This one was like the old Chinese dragons of legend, glittering with colourful scales, except for one difference; he had wings. He was 10 feet long, and his teeth were sharp and shiny. Frank had never turned into this dragon before, and he knew it would take a lot of energy, and he wouldn't be able to sustain it too long. Not wasting any time, Frank soared through the air, roaring, fire emanating from his mouth. Wow. He did not know that he could breathe fire. Awesome. Frank mentally thanked Leo for the fireproof pouch containing his lifeline.
Frank ripped crowds of monsters to dust, using his long claws to pick some up and chuck them towards another. He could see his fellow demigods look at him appreciatively, before once again being pre-occupied with the battle.
Frank could feel his energy expending. He seared the ground with flames, before his dragon form melted, turning back into human. He fell towards the earth. He could see that the demigods had been pushed back together by the monsters, whereas before they had been scattered. Just as Frank was about to land hard on the ground, Jason soared upwards to him, using the currents to push him where the other demigods were, cushioning his fall.
The demigods were battered down now, the monsters threatening to over-come them. Even Percy was no longer being healed by the water. Frank took out his sword, and charged forwards, helping Hazel with a couple of laistrygonian giants. Just as the monsters became too much for them, Percy yelled and thrust his sword forward. The water that had been collecting around his feet pooled together and was thrown forward as a huge wave, which swept the monster line backwards, pushing some off the edge of the mountain.
Despite the ground they had just gained, Frank knew the monsters would just regain it. Suddenly, there was a blinding light. As it died down, Frank saw a sight that took his breath away. The gods had arrived.
There were 14 gods in front of them, standing in a row. Silence descended on the whole battlefield. At the centre of the line of gods was Zeus, holding his lightning bolt. Besides him were Hades and Poseidon, Hades with his helm of darkness, Poseidon with his trident. Then came the rest of the twelve Olympians, each holding their respective weapons, as well as a goddess Frank recognized to be Vesta, or Hestia, goddess of the hearth. Frank spotted his father, dressed in a fiery bikers uniform, holding a tall red spear.
His father had heard him. The gods had arrived.
Frank could see that the expressions of the giants' faces had changed. While before they had stayed back, confident the monsters would beat the demigods, Frank knew the giants would now join in the fight. The giant in the middle, slightly taller than the rest, with pale skin, and dead-black braided hair, raised his weapon, a silver club. He snapped the thread of silence with a single command. "Attack!" he hollered.
Everything seemed to move in slow motion as everyone moved into position. All hell broke loose as Zeus led the way into the writhing mass of the enemy. If Frank had forgotten the mighty prowess of the gods, he now remembered. Zeus rocketed directly towards a mass of chimerae hundreds of metres away, not stopping for any monster, vaporizing them. Within seconds he was smothered in dust. His lightning bolt struck down from above as thunderclouds gathered.
Frank was galvanised into action. He decided to pull out Leo's arrows once more. When he saw the letters 'EXV2', his face split with a grin. This was about to get messy. The arrow sailed above the rest of the gods, and the whole battlefield turned to witness Explosion Version 2. A colossal BOOM radiated outwards and a fireball that even Mars would be jealous of. Artemis darted to the left to avoid the explosion. Frank estimated that explosion version 2 had decimated over 200 monsters.
Percy stood in the eye of the storm, the only safe area within a 100m radius of his tornado, which he had summoned. He slowly circled his way towards Poseidon who battled furiously with Pelorus, one of the giants with braided apple green hair. His trident was creating walls of water, which smashed into Pelorus and rejuvenated his own strength. As Percy leapt into place next to his father, he darted in and out, stabbing at the giant. Suddenly Percy harnessed his water into one big bolt, which struck Pelorus hard in the chest. He stumbled backwards and Poseidon smashed his trident straight through his heart.
Frank watched as another giant fell to the ground as Leo's metal creation struck the killing blow to it, standing beside his father proudly, having defeated the giant they had been clashing with. Frank also noted how Mars and some others had annihilated the monsters, and he had started to notice a decrease in their numbers. He drew another arrow without looking at its label and shot at a huge surge of monsters. As it landed they all froze in posit ion, some midair, becoming icy statues. Hades immediately diverted his attention to these, and in one thrust of his hand blew the sculptures to pieces.
He heard a howl of pain as another giant fell to the earth defeated by Aphrodite and Piper. He left the last arrow in his quiver, drew his sword and charged towards a nearby empousai group. In a flurry of sword strokes, he pulverized them and moved on to some others. He glanced at the enemy and noticed that on the other side of the gaggle of hellhounds and other beasts that he was fighting was his dad. Mars reached him within seconds, excitement in his eyes, as if he was finding this battle fun. Which he probably was. As Frank looked at his sword he noticed a pulsing red glow. The Blessing of Mars! From then on they fought side by side, slaying legions of monsters, Frank made temporarily invincible by the blessing. No monster could touch him. Around him and his father was a circle of destruction.
As he looked about, he noted how close Annabeth was to him. She yelled to him, "Cover me!" Frank nodded, and spectated as she sprinted towards a vast arched wall, the only upstanding one left. Around it were many other stacks or columns, and it reminded him of Stonehenge in Britain. He drew a normal arrow and continued shooting, firing ten before the first had even landed, allowing Annabeth a bit of space, whilst Mars covered easily for Frank, protecting him on all sides.
Annabeth got on her knees, placed her Yankee's cap on and disappeared. Frank continued shooting, determined to help her, though he made sure to shoot directly at monsters. If he missed he could accidentally shoot Annabeth, and Percy would not be happy with him. At all. Suddenly a loud creak rumbled across the field towards him. Frank started to get anxious, what was she doing? Then the humongous archway collapsed, toppling onto the next stack, and the domino effect continued as monsters were trapped under the rocks. As each hit the ground with a deafening thud, clouds of dust from the ground and from the monsters rose up. Suddenly Annabeth appeared triumphant, standing majestically on the ruins of the arch. Frank realised that Annabeth must have struck the arch at one of its weaker points, collapsing it.
The rest of the monster army paused; they looked, shocked at their dead companions, as the gods and demigods continues to annihilate them. But Annabeth was on the move and she ran to help Athena who was grappling with another giant. She slashed with her sword, drawing the Giant's attention away from Athena. Frank had complete faith in Athena coming up with a plan to kill the giant. Sure enough Athena manifested her divine form, Frank looked away and after a few seconds looked back to see a frozen giant, speared through the heart by Athena, who looked fearsome, Annabeth holding her sword, which was tainted with the giant's blood, behind her, having held off the giant in a sword-fight while Athena got in a tactical position.
Now that Frank was no longer needed to cover them, he diverted his attention elsewhere. He noticed that the monsters were grouping towards one part of the courtyard, where Hazel, Percy and Jason were fighting with their parents, creating carnage amongst the monsters. Jason was summoning storm-clouds, striking monsters with lightning, while Hazel was creating tunnels, then collapsing them under the monsters' feet. Gods all around were dealing with beasts, using their powers to vaporize them. Soon there weren't many monsters yet. The ones left were grouped around the dark giant, the one who had seemed like the leader, who was standing in the middle of the courtyard, holding his spear.
Suddenly he raised his spear, before smashing it down against the ground. A guttural cry emanated from his throat, and the gods and demigods paused.
"By the power of Gaia, I banish the Olympians, from the holy soil, Mount. Olympus, from the land that The Earth Mother first created, her domain. May they leave and not return, may this curse hold strong!" Once more the giant slammed his spear to the ground. This time the earth rippled up and down, throwing Frank and the other demigods of their feet. The gods remained standing, and the monsters too were unaffected. Mars, who was next to Frank, looked at him in shock.
"He's banished us from Olympus, using Gaia's power!"
"He can do that?" Frank asked, his mind unable to grasp such a concept.
"No, he can't," Mars responded, "but Gaia can."
"But- for how long?"
"For however long Gaia wishes it to hold- so forever. Unless she is sent back to chaos, which is impossible to be done by you, the curse will never break."
A shiver ran down Frank's spine. He knew there were still two giants left, the one in front of them, and Porphyrion, the leader. If they didn't have the Olympian gods, how were they meant to kill the giants?
Frank looked to his left, and saw that Mars was dissolving into the air, as were all the gods around the courtyard.
"Good luck, Frank," Mars said as he finally disappeared.
The giant grinned. "Now demigods. You cannot kill me. But I can kill you."
The seven gathered in front of him and his monsters, who still numbered in hundreds.
"Who are you?" Hazel scowled.
The giant grinned wildly, opening his mouth to answer, but a woman's voice answered instead.
"He is Thoas, enemy of the fates." Frank and the rest of the seven turned round to see Ananke standing there, a small smile tugging at her lips. "And only I can kill him."
Thoas roared in rage. "What are you doing here Ananke? I thought you do not get involved."
"No," she corrected, "I didn't get involved. Piper McLean changed my mind." Frank saw Piper smile. "Are you ready to die, Thoas?"
Ananke charged at the giant, and they clashed swords. Thoas was thrown to the ground, but he swept his sword up, and slashed at her. Frank would've kept on watching, transfixed, but the howling of hellhounds brought him back to reality. The demigods charged forward, ready to face the monsters left.
Frank knew it was time to shoot the last arrow. He pulled it out of his quiver and nocked it in his bow, before releasing it. It landed in the middle of the monster ranks, where it burrowed into the ground, before exploding, the ground collapsing beneath the monsters.
"Frank!" Hazel cried. Frank looked at her. She had dismounted Arion. "I have an idea! You can control dead soldiers right?"
Frank nodded. Hazel grinned, and swept her arms upwards. Thousands of ghosts burst through the ground, holding weapons, ready to fight. Frank yelled in delight. "Ghosts! Attack the enemy!"
The dead army swarmed the monsters. Suddenly Frank saw Ananke grappling with Thoas. He ran forward to help. He was thrown backwards though when for the third time, Thoas smashed the ground with his spear. A line appeared in the earth, a narrow chasm that snaked towards where Percy and Annabeth were fighting side by side. The ground shook there, and for some reason Percy and Annabeth fell unconscious.
"Percy! Annabeth!" Frank yelled. He was about to help, when he saw Thoas leap at Ananke. Frank charged forward and deflected him with his sword. In his peripheral vision, he noticed a group of hyperborean giants, the same kind as he remembered fighting in Alaska, charge in. He hoped that one of the seven or the ghosts would deal with them.
Ananke snarled, before slamming into Thoas. They clawed at each other, a glow starting to shine from Ananke, who slowly managed to wrestle Thoas to the ground. However Frank's vision was torn to the side as he saw the hyperborean giants leap away from the courtyard, down a thin passage way. With Percy and Annabeth on their backs, unconscious.
Frank yelled, and was about to go help him when he was slammed backwards by Ananke, who was drawing her arm back for the final blow with Thoas. With a scream she plunged the sword down, and there was a burst of light as the giant collapsed into the ground.
The light faded from Frank's vision, and he saw Ananke standing there. The demigods and the ghosts had destroyed the last of the monsters.
"Percy and Annabeth!" he screamed. "We need to go after them!"
He spun round, trying to find the passageway they had been captured down, but the earth had closed up behind them, leaving the passage blocked.
"What happened to them?" Jason asked, confused.
Frank pointed desperately at the now sealed passage. "They were unconscious, and now they're captured by hyperborean giants!"
"What!" Piper yelped. "We need to go after them!"
"No," Ananke commanded harshly. "You will not be able to find them now, not yet anyway. It is your place to now raise Ouranos."
"We can't just leave them!" Leo protested.
Ananke's face hardened. "You must. You will not be able to rescue them. If you try, and forsake your duty, the whole world will be doomed."
Jason nodded grimly. "She's right. The only way to save Percy and Annabeth, who I guess will be the sacrifices to raise Gaia, is to get Ouranos. We have no chance on our own."
Ananke nodded. "I can help you no longer. I wish you luck. You will need it." With that she disappeared.
Every nerve in Frank's body was screaming in terror. The gods could no longer help them. Percy and Annabeth had been captured, and were being taken to their deaths. And now the five demigods remaining had to raise Ouranos from the dead.
Frank agreed with Ananke. They could definitely use all the luck they could get.
As I said, the next chapter will be posted once I have 18 reviews! So review if you want to read on!
I hope you enjoyed that chapter, it was my longest yet, and there was definitely a lot of fighting, and the seven got to show off their talents :) But the climax is approaching! Only 5 more chapters left!
Now please, go review!